Solar Battery Fault, BuyBack ?

2spicy

Collective folks, I wonder if I can get some advice please ..
I have a 4KW Solar solution on our house, and an 6.4Kw/hr LG Battery.

The system is 8 years old, so I have 2 years of warranty left on the syste, but in August, the BMS (Battery Management System) Developed a fault. This is where things became complicated, as my Solar installer ceasted trading in 2019, so I went down the rout of contacting the manufacturers to get support.

The Inverter manufacturer, Solax were great, they quickly identified that the issue was with the battery, and not the inverter, so off I went to contact LG, the battery manufacturer.

Fast forward 3 months, and many international phone calls to LG in Germany, they have agreed that the battery is at fault and under warranty .. But, they cannot replace the battery as the model I have is no longer available, so they have offered me "BuyBack".

This is where I could use a bit of advice. The solar solution was financed over a 10 year period, and the monthly repayments calculated on the average return per year, to cover the finance. This means I have outstanding around £1500 on finance, and around 2 years 2 months left of the warranty.
With the battery in place, I would probably pay off the finance a year early, and that would give me 1 years worth of "free cash" from the solar+battery.

LG have offered me £550 (subject to exchange rates) to "buy back" the battery .. but im not sure what to do ?
Ideally I would like a replacment, ot the very least for them to increase their buyback offer so that my forcasted earnings would be covered.

I have responded and asked if they are in a position to fix the battery and return it to me, as I was hoping that the solar battery would be a helpful supliment to the household energy useage, particularly in the summer, where it runs "for free" the house air conditioner

Opinions and thoughts on what I should do welcome ...

Screwdriva

Did you pay with a credit card? If so, Section 75 is a very powerful mechanism to achieve better claim negotiation outcomes. I'd laugh at anything less than £2K offered or would insist on a replacement battery.

QrizB

Take the £550, join Octopus Flux, sell your surplus back to the grid?

Heedtheadvice

What does your warranty say?

QrizB

Heedtheadvice said:

What does your warranty say?

Installer went bust, but the warrany should've been insurance-backed.

Have you contacted their insurer? Someone like HIES (your paperwork will say who)?

2spicy

Very messy experience .. supplier ceased trading after i had paid for the goods. I turned up with a hired van and collected my battery before the management were able to stop their staff from releasing the battery.

I paid a local installer to install the battery.

Turns out they defrauded loads of people and i was lucky to get the goods i paid for. So no documentation because the office staff were laid off and the reciever (and subsequently police) siezed everything.

Reading LG's warranty..

"In the case the products are not available in the market anymore or LGE cannot supply the battery service stock
anymore, LGE will
- replace other battery of equivalent performances and functions or
- compensate the price after the product is depreciated for 10 years warranty period"

So LG cannot supply me a replacement 'like for like', and i think £550 is just taking the P155

Heedtheadvice

Assume battery cost was £2000 then deprecating over 8 years of the 10 year warranty (linearly which it should not be) gives asset value of £400. It is much more complex than that and the assumption will nor be correct but on that basis 550 does not seem unreasonable unless the battery portion of your original purchase was significantly higher. I wonder how much we would consider paying for an 8 year old battery? Possibly ask LG how they come to their valuation?

The fact that you have bought on finance does not really affect the battery value. It does affect your financial position. You might though investige the finance terms and conditions but would not expect anything positive there.

It is a sad tale and perhaps a valuable lesson to use a credit card for at least part of high value purchases.

If LG cannot provide an equivalent maybe see if they can provide better  and chip in a bit yourself to get those new batts? There are also battery repairers so accepting  the LG cash offer might help there but I would check if the batteries had any repair chance first.

Good luck.

2spicy

Cheers for the response. Yeah, lessons learnt, sadly the hard way.

Im not 100% on the battery/ inverter split, suffice to say both were aprox £6k.

I did ask about an uograde as a replacment, but that offer was never on the table.

Ill see if they come back with a few more pennies

Petriix

The problem is that the materials tend to only make up at most 50% of the total price. Profit, scaffolding, labour, profit, insurance, overheads etc. (did I mention profit?) make up the rest. 

QrizB

Petriix said:

The problem is that the materials tend to only make up at most 50% of the total price. Profit, scaffolding, labour, profit, insurance, overheads etc. (did I mention profit?) make up the rest. 

Also, prices (and therefore values) have fallen substantially since 2015.

Two Pylontech US3000Cs would give you 7kWh for £2800, at current prices.

Which brings me to my question ...

2spicy said:

I have a 4KW Solar solution on our house, and an 6.4Kw/hr LG Battery.

The solar solution was financed over a 10 year period, and the monthly repayments calculated on the average return per year, to cover the finance.

How has that worked out, in practice?

4kWp of solar PV on a 2015 FIT would pay for the panels over 10 years, for almost certain, but I'm not sure it would cover the cost of a 6kWh battery too?

Alnat1

Pylontech US5000 batteries (4.8kWh) are under £1400 now on some sites.